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ENGLISH READINGS 
FOR SCHOOLS 



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OCEAN STORIES 



Japan of Today 

THE MANDATE ISLANDS OF JAPAN 
With an Introduction 

SY CARRIE G' AINSWORTH 



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AINSWORTH & COMPANY 

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Graded List of Lakeside Classics 



-AND- 



BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING 



Order by number. Any book sent, postpaid, on receipt of list price. Books 
to the value of one dollar or more sent by mail or express, prepaid, on 
receipt of price named, less ten per cent discount. 



SBCOND GBADE 

Holbrook Reader for Primary Grades, 

••Philip at School." By Florence Hol- 
brook, Forestville School, Chicago. 
Copiously illustrated, with vocabulary, 
and suggestion for teachers. Every 
picture is made to illustrate the text, 
and the vocabulary is not beyond the 
comprehension of the child of the age 
for which the book is intended. 
Printed on a grrade of paper made es- 
pecially for this book, and in a dis- 
tinctive color. Illustrated. 120 pages. 
Cloth. 

No. 66. The Story of the Filgrlms. Large, 
clear type. 

No. 158, Adventares of a Brownie, Part 
I. By Dinah M. Craik. 

No. 70. Stories from Hiawatha. Hia- 
watha's Childhood, The Feast of Mon- 
damin, Hiawatha's Fasting. By Susan 

F. Chase. 

THIRD GRADE 

World Stories for Children. A Third 
Grade Reader. Selected and arranged 
by Sophie L. Woods. A book consist- 
ing chiefly of Prose selections to which 
a few choice bits of verse have been 
added. Cloth, illustrated. 198 pages. 

No. 157. The Uffly Duckling. From An- 
dersen's Fairy Tales. Translated by 
Florence E. Homer. 

No. 159. Robinson Cmsoe. Adapted by 

G. Harlow. 32 pages. 

No. 72. Christmas in Other Lands. By 

Alice W. Cooley. 

No. 74. Peril in Leafland and How the 
Trees Met It. By Jennie M. Youngs. 



No. 87. Little DaffydowndUly. 

thaniel Hawthorne, 



By Na- 



No 81. A misrrim Drill. A motion song. 

No. 82. Nature end Tree Sonirs. By 

Jennie M. Youngs. 

No. 134. The Minotanr. Hawthorne. 32 
pages with introduction. 

No. 135. The Dragon's Teeth. Haw- 
thorne. 32 pages with Introduction. 
No. 133. The Pygrmies. 32 pages. 
No. 162. The Golden Fleece. 



Stories of Many Countries and Many- 
Times. A Fourth Grade Reader. Se- 
lected and arranged with introduction 
and notes by Florence Holbrook of the 
Forestville School, Chicago. 251 pages. 
Cloth. 

FOURTH GRADE 

No. 77. Story of Lafayette. 

No. 78. Story of Abraham Lincoln. 

No. 79. Story of Washington. 

No. 80. Story of Longfellow. 

FIFTH GRADE 

Classic Poetry and Prose. A Fifth Grade 
Reader. Containing complete and un- 
abridged selections of Stories and 
Poems with Study prepared by Miss 
Rose M. Kavana, together with ex- 
haustive notes and questions. 320 
pages. Cloth. 

No. 26. Selections from Hawthorne and 
Browning:. Containing The Pygmies, 
The Minotaur, The Dragon's Teeth, and 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. 144 pages. 
Cloth back. 

No. 76. Thanatopsis; A Forest Hymn, 
and Other Poems. Bryant. 

No. 61. Rip Van Winkle. Washington 
Irving. Text only. 

No. 48. The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and 
Other Poems. By Brov/ning. 

No. 87. The Great Stone Face, Snow 
image, and Other Twice-Told Tales. 
By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

SIXTH GRADE 

Famous Stories and Poems. A Sixth 
Grade Reader. Consisting of complete 
and unabridged selections of Prose and 
Poetry with Biographical notes. The 
selections in this grade are of such 
character that the pupil is shown how 
to read and how to study with an op- 
portunity to discuss selections, not 
only for the enjoyment of the reading 
but also for a discussion of the story 
itself. 348 pages. Cloth. 

No. 89 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and 
Rip Van Winkle. By Washington Irv- 
ing, with biography, notes, etc. 79 
pages. 

No. 94. Oliver Wendell Holmes. The 
Chambered Nautilus, Old Ironsides, The 
Last Leaf. 11 pages with portrait, an 
illustration, notes, and introduction. 




A JAPANESE COOLIE GIRL 



Ct)e LakesiiDe ^etie0 of (Bmiifit EeaDtn00 



OCEAN STORIES 



Japan of Today 



ITS PEOPLE ITS CUSTOMS 

ITS RESOURCES 

THE MANDATE ISLANDS OF JAPAN 

With an Introduction 



By 
^ CARRIE G. AINSWORTH 



Chicago 
AINSWORTH & COMPANY 



>5^ 



Copyright 1922 

by 

AINSWORTH and COMPANY 



Hrrt 



3 1922 
0)CU672397 



FOEEWORD 

In the preceding volume of Ocean Stories, 
the book, ^^A Trip to the Orient, '' describes 
a journey from Yokohama through the Inland 
Sea of Japan; and the Story ends at Manila. 
In this volume, more attention is given to the 
history of Japan, and its people. 

The prominent position taken by Japan in 
the Disarmament Conference and the fact that 
Congress has considered recently various im- 
migration and naturalization bills make this 
subject of especial interest at this time. 

In 1900, 10,000 Japanese landed in California 
after being released from contract in Hawaii. 

A ^'Gentlemen's Agreement" was voluntar- 
ily made by Japan in 1907, by which laborers 
were not allowed to come to the United States 
(with certain exceptions). 

California in 1913 passed a law forbidding- 
aliens, ineligible to citizenship, to own a lease 
for more than three years on any agricultural 
land in the state. 

A referendum in 1920 strengthened these 
restrictions so that the same aliens can not 
now even lease land, hold it in trust for a child, 
or own stock in a land-holding corporation. 

The Naturalization Act says that those eli- 
gible to citizenship shall be all free white 
persons and persons of African nativity or 
descent. 
March 1922. C. G. A. 



''All travel has its advantages. If the 
traveler visits better countries, he may learn 
to improve his own; and if fortune carries 
him to worse, may learn to enjoy his own." 

''The use of travel is to regulate imagina- 
tion by reality, and instead of thinking how 
things may be, to see them as they are" — 
Johnson. 



INTRODUCTION 

The facilities for travel, the constant and 
frequent intercourse by the palatial steamships 
that traverse the Pacific Ocean, and the neces- 
sity of our keeping in commercial touch with 
our possessions in the Orient make it of espe- 
cial interest to consider something of the cus- 
toms and manners of the people of Japan, who 
are among our leading customers and who buy 
so largely of our products. 

The Japanese peojjle are made up of four 
races: the Caucasian Race, the Semitic people, 
the Malay people, and the Tartar people. Of 
the original people of the Caucasian or white 
race, about 20,000 are still living in the North 
on the Island of Yezo. These are known as 
the Ai-nu ; they are nearly white, with straight 
eyes and long beards and speak a language 
much like some European languages. When 
the Ai-nu women marry, they tattoo the space 
around the mouth so as to make it look much 
like a mustache. The Malay people come from 
the South and have still numerous relatives in 
Formosa and the Philippines. The fourth ele- 
ment is the Tartar race; or the people who 
came from Northern Asia, probably through 



8 , JAPAN OF TODAY 

Korea, and crossed the Sea into Japan. These 
four races have now been blended together and 
form one Nation. The Northern Islands were 
not originally a real part of Japan until the 
Russians began to appear in the North. 

A Japanese sailor made his way almost 
around the Northern end of the Island of Sa- 
ghalin which Europeans did not know to be 
an Island. The Island of Formosa became Jap- 
anese Territory after the War with China in 
1895 and Korea became a part of the Empire 
in 1910. The Empire ranges in latitude from 
22 degrees to about 51 degrees north. The 
Southern part of Formosa is south of the 
Tropic of Cancer and because of such difference 
in latitude, the climate varies from Tropical 
in the South to cold in the North. The warm 
ocean current known as the Japan Current 
flows northward along the Coast. The Eastern 
extremity of Japan is longitude 156 degrees 
west which makes it within 900 miles of Alaska. 
Its Western extremity is longitude 119 east, 
bringing it quite close to China. 

The Japanese were a very exclusive people 
and when the European people were driven out 
in 1620, the Hollanders were allowed to live at 
Nagasaki, on an Island just outside the City 
and to have a ship come once a year to ex- 
change Dutch for Japanese products. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

We quote from ^^A Salem Shipmaster and 
Alerchant ' ' : 

In 1802 while at Manila, thinking it might be two 
or three months before the season would allow me 
to return home, I planned a trip to Japan. I was 
to go in the ^^ Active" with a small cargo of sugar, 
piece goods, etc. A gentleman from New York then 
at Manila, took great interest in this enterprise; 
which, by the way, was considered a very bold one, 
as the Japanese ports were closed against all for- 
eigners, the Dutch alone excepted, and assisted in 
purchasing my cargo. My intention was to ship 
for Ningpo, but, arrived at Japan, I was to feign 
distress and put into Nagasaki for repairs. Once 
allowed to land, I hoped to be able to dispose of 
my cargo advantageously. I set sail and had been 
out about a week, when the monsoon changed and 
I was prevented from going on. A day or two 
more of favorable weather would have brought me 
to Nagasaki. 

In ^^A Voyage in the Sunbeam" is found this 
interesting experience. 

Saturday, February 17, 1877. At 3:45 a. m. the 
anchor was dropped near the lighthouse of Isaki and 
we waited until daylight before proceeding through 
the Straits of Shimono-seki. 

About nine o'clock the wind freshened, and as 
soon as the anchorage near the town was reached, 
we anchored again near two men-of-war which had 
preceded us from Kobe but were now windbound, 
like ourselves. 

We landed opposite a large tea-house, where we 
were immediately surrounded by a crowd of Jap- 



10 JAPAN OF TODAY 

anese, who stared at us eagerly, and even touched 
us only through curiosity. They pursued us where- 
ever we went, and when we entered at a house or 
shop, the whole crowd stopped, and if we retired 
to the back they surged all over the front premises 
and penetrated into the interior as far as they could. 
A most amusing scene took place at one of the 
houses where we went to order some provisions for 
the yacht. The proprietor suggested that they 
should retire at once, and an abrupt retreat took 
place, the difficulties of which were augmented by 
the fact that every one had left his wooden shoes 
outside, along the front of the house. The street 
was ankle deep in mud and half -melted snow, into 
which they did not like to venture in their stock- 
ings ; but how the owners of two or three hundred 
pairs of clogs, almost exactly alike, ever found their 
own property again, I could not understand, though 
they managed to clear out very quickly. 

We were the chief objects of attention, as they 
told us that no European lady or child had ever 
been at Shimono-seki before. It was not a treaty 
port, so no one was allowed to land, except from 
a Man-of-war without special permission, which was 
not often given; it is besides the key to the Inland 
Sea and the authorities were very jealous about any 
one seeing the forts. We waded through the mud 
and snow, always followed by the same crowd and 
stared at by all the inhabitants. They seemed very 
timid and inclined to run away if we turned around. 
Still their curiosity, especially respecting my seal- 
skin jacket and serge dress, was insatiable, and I 
felt myself constantly being gently stroked and 
touched. We returned to the yacht and while at 



INTRODTJCTIOK 11 

lunch, some officers came on board, to say that, this 
not being a treaty port, we could not purchase any 
provisions, except through them, and with special 
permission. 

The first Englishman to live in Japan was 
named Adams, who came out as the Pilot of 
a Squadron of Dutch Merchant Ships and not 
being allow^ed to leave the country, he married 
a Japanese woman and taught shipbuilding on 
European models. In 1839 the Japanese gun- 
ners in Forts at Ku-ri-ha-ma fired on the U. S. 
Belief Ship Morrison which was bringing ship- 
wrecked sailors to Japan and drove her away. 
Here is located Perry Park, mth a striking 
monument, erected in July 1901 to characterize 
the fact, that this is the place where the Amer- 
ican Squadron in 1853 under Commodore Perry 
visited Japan. The American Marines and 
Sailors landed and conferences were held in a 
pavilion to consider a letter written by Presi- 
dent Fillmore asking the Japanese to be friend- 
ly and kind to our ship-wrecked and needy 
sailors, and to enter into commercial relations 
between the United States and Japan. 

Our relations with Japan began in the 
friendship under Commodore Perry, and we 
contributed thousands of teachers, missionaries 
and scientific mxcn to aid in the progress of the 
Japanese people. 



THE MANDATE ISLANDS OF JAPAN 

These Islands are located between the Equa- 
tor and the tenth parallel of Latitude North, 
and consist of the former German islands. The 
Pelew, Caroline, Mariana (with the exception 
of Guam) and the Marshall Islands, are in- 
cluded under the mandate. The islands in 
these groups are mainly of coral formation and 
are of small size, exceeding 800 in number. The 
commercial value of the islands is small ; copra 
is the largest article of export. Anguar, one 
of the Pelew Islands, has deposits of high grade 
phosphates. The islands have considerable 
strategic value and, though they cannot by the 
terms of the mandate be fortified or used as 
naval bases, the islands will prove of great im- 
portance for commercial wireless stations and 
aviation bases. 

After the peace settlement the United States 
questioned the control exercised by Japan over 
Yap in the Caroline Islands. Yap, situated 500 
miles east of the Philippines, is an important 
cable station for Trans-Pacific lines from 
Shanghai (China), Menado (Dutch East Indies) 
and Guam, linking up the United States with 
the Far East and East Indies. The necessity 

13 



14 JAPAN OF TODAY 

of cables and radio communications has as- 
sumed international importance ; the recent con- 
troversy on cable control at Yap and other 
points has shown how vital the control of com- 
munications is to the welfare of nations. 

By the acquisition of these islands the posi- 
tion of Japan as a Pacific power has been 
strengthened. The expansion of Japan in the 
Pacific is not relished by Australia and New 
Zealand. These nations have adopted the policy 
of making their countries an area for white set- 
tlement only. With the disappearance of Ger- 
many from the Pacific, the United States, 
China, Japan, and Great Britain with her col- 
onies of Australia and New Zealand, are now 
the leading Pacific powers. France has posses- 
sions in the Pacific but she does not aspire to 
any political power in this area. 

The Mandate Islands of Great Britain and 
Australia are to the South and lie along the 
Equator from 150 degrees of Longitude West 
of Greenwich to 140 degrees East. 

Here is the charm of waving palms; of the 
shining beaches with their windows of shingle, 
in which one gathers shells and coral; of the 
sea breaking on the reef; of the native huts 
glimpsed through the trees ; of the white terns 
flying low and screaming ; of tall herons wading 
in the shallow water at the edge of the sea ; of 
the white clouds driven rapidly over the island 



THE MANDATE ISLANDS l5 

by the trade winds; of the fleet of outrigger 
canoes sailing out at dawn or silhouetted 
against the setting sun as they return. 









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By Courtesy of "Chicago Tribune." 



The Island of Yap. 




*'The Pacific Is a Wide Ocean But a Narrow 

World ' ' 

In a previous volume, ^^A Trip to the 
Orient," was given a story of a voyage from 
San Francisco across the Pacific. While on 
this voyage, early in the morning, we were 
called on deck to see the burning Mountain. The 
wind was still blowing hard, but we were among 
the islands, and in comparatively smooth water. 
The full moon still rode high in the heavens, 
her light being reflected in rainbow hues from 
the spray and foam that drifted along the sur- 
face of the w^ater. On every side were islands 
and rocks, among which the sea boiled and 
seethed, while the roaring breakers dashed 

17 



18 JAPAN OF TODAY 

against the higher cliffs, casting great columns 
of spray into the air, and falling back in heavy 
rollers and surf. 

Just before us rose the Island of Vries, 
with its cone-shaped volcano, 2,600 feet high, 
emitting volumes of smoke and flame. It was 
overhung by a cloud of white vapor, on the 
underside of which shone the lurid glare of the 
fires of the crater. Sometimes this cloud simply 
floated over the top of the mountain, from 
which it was quite detached; then when there 
would be a fresh eruption, and, after a few 
moments' quiet, great tongues of flame would 
shoot up and pierce through the overhanging 
cloud to the heavens above, while the molten 
lava rose like a fountain for a short distance, 
and then ran down the sides of the mountain. 

It was wondrouslv beautiful and, as a de- 
fence against the intense cold, we wrapped our- 
selves in furs, and stayed on deck w^atching the 
scene, until the sun rose glorious from the sea, 
and shone upon the snow-covered sides of Fuji- 
yama, called by the Japanese, the ^^ Matchless 
mountain.'' It is an extinct crater, of the most 
perfect form, rising abruptly from a chain of 
very low mountains, so that it stands in un- 
rivalled magnificence. This morning, covered 
with the fresh-fallen snow, there w^as not a 
spot nor a fleck to be seen upon it, from top 
to bottom. It is said to be the youngest moun- 




19 



20 JAPAN OF TODAY 

tain ill the world, the enormous mass having 
been thrown up in the course of a few days 
only 862 years B. C. 

We reached the entrance to the Gulf of 
Yeddo about nine o'clock, and passed between 
its shores through hundreds of junks and fish- 
ing boats. I never saw anything like it before. 
The water was simply covered with them ; and 
at a distance it looked as though it would be 
impossible to force a passage. The shores of 
the gulf, on each side, consist of sharp cut lit- 
tle hills, covered with pines and cryptomerias, 
and dotted with temples and villages. Every 
detail of the scene exactly resembled the Jap- 
anese pictures we are accustomed to see. 

Yokohama is the great and principal entry 
port for travel across the Pacific and while not 
the largest city in Japan, it is really the best 
known and most familiar, and all parts of the 
Empire can be most readily reached from here. 

In 1853, when Commodore Perry first saw 
the village across the bay and named the Cross 
Strand, it had but a few hundred fishermen 
and farmers living in thatched huts. Today 
it is a double city of foreigners and natives and 
is a principal place of commerce with other 
nations. 

The Japanese Empire embraces a chain of 
islands extending from the south end of the 
peninsula of Kamchatka almost to the Philip- 



CLIMATE 21 

pine Islands. In the center is the main group of 
islands, of which Hondo is the largest and most 
important. To the northeast are the Kuril 
Islands, which are small and barren and con- 
tain several active volcanoes. To the southeast 
is another chain of small islands, the Nansei 
group, and southwest of these is the Island of 
Taiwan, or Formosa. The ancient country of 
Korea, on a peninsula of Asia, is now a portion 
of the Japanese Empire and is called Chosen. 
Earthquakes are frequent and the houses are 
built low in order to withstand the strain of the 
shocks. 

The rainfall is heavy and in the North and 
on the higher mountains there is much snow. 
The forests are luxuriant and show a great 
variety of trees. Much of the forest growth 
has been preserved because most of the surface 
is hilly or mountainous and the trees are not 
cut away on the steep slopes in order to culti- 
vate the land, and an old law required that 
where one tree was cut down, two trees should 
be planted to take its place. 

CLIMATE 

The Spring and Autumn are the most de- 
sirable seasons to visit Japan. June is the wet 
month and July and August are very hot. The 
climate, in general, is mild in the islands 
throughout the year, because! Japan is sur- 



22 JAPAN OF TODAY 

rounded by a great ocean and the warm ocean 
current along the shore equalizes the tempera- 
ture. 

NATIVE WAYS AND CUSTOMS 

On the islands are about 50,000,000 people, 
and the habitable portion of the land is so 
small that the population is very dense, and 
to provide food for the people, the soil is cul- 
tivated in a most intensive way and only the 
skill and industry of the people enable them to 
support themselves. Even the mountain slopes 
are terraced and walls are built to prevent the 
earth from sliding. 

The roads in the country are very narrow, 
and the people live in continuous villages with 
small houses, having thatched roofs, on each 
side of the road, and the cultivated land in the 
rear of the houses extends back for a long 
distance — every inch of ground is used and 
generally three crops a year are raised. Much 
of the ground is controlled by the government 
and rented to the farmers; in some cases the 
portion allotted to one family is as small as 
one-eighth of an acre. 

Many varieties of rice are produced and it 
is the chief food of the people. The tea grown 
in Japan is famous, and indigo, cotton, hemp, 
flax, and tobacco are also raised. 



MULBEREY TREES 23 

Very few animals are kept on the islands, 
because they use large quantities of food and 
there is no food to spare. 

The natives have no cows and do not use 
any milk, so that the hotels, the tourists and 
foreigners are furnished with frozen milk 
which is thawed out and called ^ 'fresh milk." 
Condensed milk comes from the United States 
and is used in large quantities. 

Fish are abundant in the shallow waters 
around the islands, and fish, generally un- 
cooked, is one of the chief foods. Dried fish is 
largely eaten by the natives. 

Mulberry trees are grown to provide food 
for the silk-worms, which after eating the leaves 
for twenty-one days, hide themselves in 
cocoons. Late in the Spring can be seen mil- 
lions of little round, grej^ balls, spread out on 
cards which are hung up in rows, and in a few 
days armies of little worms are wriggling about 
with open mouths ready for food. In the mul- 
berry groves, girls, women, and men are pick- 
ing the mulberry leaves, which, chopped up 
fine, form the food of the worms whose only 
object in life is to eat. They are fed in trays 
laid on shelves and eating continuously, day 
and night, they grow from the little specks to 
be from three to four inches long and can chew 
and eat the leaves when large and whole. When 
they cease to eat, they become climbers and 



24 JAPAN OF TODAY 

spinners, and bunches of straw are set up from 
the trays and the worms climb up and begin to 
spin long threads of silk which they wrap 
around themselves and soon the worm w^hich 
has shortened to about an inch becomes a 
cocoon, looking something like a peanut and 
white or yellow in color. 

Formerly young girls sat in rows in front 
of little iron kettles placed on small charcoal 
furnaces. The cocoons were put into hot water 
which softened the covering and the girls, pick- 
ing out the ends of the threads, would wind 
them on wooden hand-reels, which came to mar- 
ket in shining hanks. 

Now, in the silk factories, with machinery 

driven by steam, the work is done more quickly 

and in larger quantities, though women are still 

the chief workers. Frequently we read in our 

daily papers of carefully guarded special trains 

carrying the silk nt passenger train speed to our 

silk factories in New Jersey and other points 

East; this precious product that has been 

brought in steamers to Seattle on the Pacific 

Coast. Japan supplies about thirty per cent of 

the total amount of silk made in the world, and 

more than half of all that we receive in the 

United States. 

Occupations 

In Japan the spinning industry is becoming 

more and more important. Silk is manufac- 



OCCUPATIONS 25 

tured at Tokyo, and large cotton mills are 
located at Osaka. The raw cotton is imported 
from India and train loads are shipped from 
our own cotton fields in the South. 

The Japanese excel all others in the art of 
lacquering ; from the sap of a kind of sumach, 
they make the lac, which is a varnish. They in- 
lay woods in beautiful patterns, and then apply 
the lac in numberless applications, which, when 
dried is given a high polish and becomes as 
hard as steel. For many years the Japanese 
have been skilled in the arts. Their fine porce- 
lain and glassware are greatly admired and 
are seen in the art stores, the museums and the 
homes of people in Europe and America. 

Iron and coal are among the important min- 
erals of Japan, as they are establishing mills, 
building railroads, constructing ships, and en- 
gaging in commerce. They have large deposits 
of copper which is of great value, as electrical 
power is much used. There are more than 
6,000 miles of railway in Japan; a large mile- 
age, as the country is mountainous and has 
few places that are as much as seventy-five 
miles from the sea. 

The railways in Japan are medium gauge and 
the principal line extends from Kobe to Kyoto. 
There are two fast passenger trains, daily, tak- 
ing from ten to twelve hours. The cars are 
small and of light weight, equipped with air 



26 JAPAI^ OF TODAY 

brakes, the day trains are heavily crowded and 
at night the sleeping cars are only furnished 
with curtain partitions. The cars on day trains 
are sometimes equipped with seats like our 
passenger cars, but as a rule, they are only fur- 
nished with one long narrow seat running 
lengthwise of the car. 

At the stations along the road wooden boxes 
are passed to the passengers through the win- 
dows, containing a luncheon of fish, rice and 
pickles, together with a pot of tea. When the 
food is eaten, the teapot is placed in the box 
and put underneath the seats to be gathered 
up and returned. The trains are generally 
crowded and it is necessary to secure reserva- 
tions in advance for seats on the best trains, 
as the tickets show the number of the seat to 
be occupied. 

The progress of Japan during the past fifty 
years has been wondejrful. The people are 
quick to learn, and readily adopt or imitate the 
customs and industries of other nations. They 
send many young men to foreign universities 
and engineering schools to study modern meth- 
ods in the Western worlds. They also have 
large and well equipped universities of their 
own and only a few of the professors in these 
schools are men from other nations. 

Rice is the main crop. This is generally 
grown in valleys, which must be irrigated and 




Carrying Loads 

27 



28 JAPAN OF TODAY 

have several inches of water covering the 
ground. The farmers plow the soft mud in the 
Spring, turning over the roots and making the 
soil level. In May the rice seed is sown in small 
selected beds, where it sinks out of sight, but 
soon the green sprouts appear and when six 
inches in height are transplanted and set in 
rows. Then the weeding and heaping up around 
the roots must be attended to and this is done 
with the naked toes of the workers who follow 
along rows taking care of two rows at a time. 
The crop is then left alone until October. Then 
the farmer goes out with his reaping hook, cuts 
the grain from the stalks, pulls the straw 
through iron teeth to get out the grain, pounds 
the husks and kernel in mortars, made of wood, 
and winnows the mass to blow off the chaff. 
Then the rice is clean and fit for eating. That 
which grows in the Southwest is considered the 
best. It is eaten three times a day, and with 
fish, eggs, beans, and vegetables forms the 
staple of native diet. 

No meat is eaten by the common people. On 
the hillsides where the land cannot be irrigated, 
other crops are grown, but much of the coun- 
try is too steep for the plow, so that only about 
one-tenth of the area can be cultivated. Tea will 
grow on the hillsides, and oranges and pears 
are also grown. 



YOKOHAMA 

When in Yokohama we went to dine^ in real 
Japanese fashion, at a Japanese tea-house. The 
e?stablishment was kept by a very pleasant 
woman, who received us at the door, and who 
herself removed our shoes before allowing us 
to step on her clean mats. This was all very 
well, as far as it Avent, but she might as well 
have supplied us with some substitute, for it 
was a bitterly cold night, and the highly pol- 
ished wood passages felt very cold to our 
shoeless feet. The apartment we were shown 
into was so exact a type of a room in any 
Japanese house, that I may as well describe 
it once for all. The woodwork of the roof 
and the framework of the screens were all 
made of a handsome dark polished wood, not 
unlike walnut. The exterior of walls under the 
verandah, as well as the partitions between 
the other rooms, were simply wooden lattice- 
work screens, covered with white paper, and 
sliding in grooves ; so that you could walk in or 
out at any part of the wall you chose. Doors 
and windows are, by this arrangement, ren- 
dered unnecessary, and do not exist. You open 
a little bit of your wall if you want to look out, 

29 



30 JAPAN OF TODAY 

and a bigger bit if you want to step out. The 
floor was covered with several thicknesses of 
very fi^ne mats, each about six feet long by 
three broad, deliciously soft to walk upon. All 
mats in Japan are of the same size, and every- 
thing connected with house-building is measured 
by this standard. Once you have prepared 
your foundations and woodwork of the dimen- 
sions of so many mats, it is the easiest thing 
in the world to go to a shop and buy a house, 
ready made, which you can set up and furnish 
in the scanty Japanese fashion in a couple of 
days. 

On one side of the room was a slightly raised 
dais, about four inches from the floor. This 
was the seat of honor. On it had been placed 
a stool, a little bronze ornament, and a china 
vase, with a branch of cherry-blossom and a 
few flag-leaves gracefully arranged. On the 
wall behind hung pictures, which are changed 
every month, according to the season of the 
year. There was no other furniture of any sort 
in the room. Four nice-looking Japanese girls 
brought in thick cotton quilts to sit upon, and 
braziers full of burning charcoal, to warm our- 
selves by. In the center of the group another 
brazier was placed, protected by a square 
wooden grating, and over the whole they laid 
a large silk eiderdown quilt, to retain the heat. 
This is the wav in which all the rooms, even 



A JAPANESE DINNER 31 

bedrooms, are warmed in Japan, and the result 
is that fires are of very frequent occurrence. 
The brazier is kicked over by some restless or 
careless person, and in a moment the whole 
place is in a blaze. 

A Japanese Dinner 

Presently the eiderdown and brazier were 
removed and our dinner brought in. A little 
lacquer table, about six inches high, on which 
were arranged a pair of chop-sticks, a basin of 
soup, a bowl for rice, a saki cup, and a basin of 
hot water, was placed before each person, while 
the four Japanese maidens sat in our midst, 
with fires to keep the saki hot, and to light the 
tiny pipes with which they were provided, and 
from which they wished us to take a whiff after 
each dish. Saki is a sort of spirit, distilled 
from rice, always drunk hot, out of small cups. 

Everything was well cooked and served, 
though the ingredients of some of the dishes, 
as mil be seen from the following bill of fare, 
given on the following page, were rather strange 
to our ideas. Still they were eatable, and most 
of them really palatable. 




Getting Dinner. Shops Open to Street 
32 



a japanese dinner 33 

Menu 

Soup 

Shrimps and Seaweed 

Prawns, Egg Omelette, and Preserved Grapes 

Fried Fish, Spinach, Young Rushes, and 

Young Ginger 

Raw Fish, Mustard and Cress, Horseradish 

and Soy 

Thick Soup, of Eggs, Fish, Mushrooms, and 

Spinach. Grilled Fish 

Fried Chicken and Bamboo Shoots 

Turnip Tops and Root Pickles 

Rice ad libitum in a large bowl 

Hot Saki, Pipes and Tea. 

The meal concluded with an enormous lacquer 
box of rice, from which all our bowls were 
j&lled, the rice being thence conveyed to our 
mouths by means of chop-sticks. We managed 
very well with these substitutes for spoons and 
folks, the knack of using which, to a certain 
extent, is soon acquired. The long intervals be- 
tween the dishes were beguiled with songs, 
music, and dancing performed by professional 
singing and dancing girls. The music was 
somewhat harsh and monotonous; but the 
songs sounded harmonious, and the dancing 



34 JAPAK OF TODAY 

was graceful, though it was rather posturing 
than dancing, great use being made of the fan 
and the long trailing skirts. The girls, who were 
pretty, wore peculiar dresses to indicate their 
calling, and seemed of an entirely different 
stamp from the quiet, simply dressed waitresses 
whom we found so attentive to our wants. 

After dinner we had some real Japanese tea, 
tasting exactly like a little hot water poured on 
very fragrant new-mown hay. Then, after a 
brief visit to the kitchen, which, though small, 
was beautifully clean, we received our shoes 
and were bowed out by our pleasant hostess 
and her attentive handmaidens. 

The market at Yokohama is one of the sights 
of the place. There were large quantities of 
birds and game of all kinds — pheasants with 
tails six feet long, of a rare copper-colored va- 
riety, ducks^ pigeons, small birds, hares, deer, 
rabbits. The market was well supplied with 
fish, especially cuttle-fish. They are not invit- 
ing looking, but are considered a delicacy here. 
A real octopus, in a basket, with its hideous 
body in the centre, and its eight arms, covered 
with suckers, arranged in the form of a star, 
is worth from a dollar to a dollar and a half, 
according to its size. I was not tempted, how- 
ever, to make any purchases. 

From the market we went to one or two small 
shops in back streets, and thence over the 



BUILDII^GS 35 

bluffs, in the teeth of a bitterly cold wind, to a 
nursery garden, to examine the results of the 
Japanese art of dwarfing and distorting trees. 
Some of the specimens were very curious and 
some beautiful, but most were simply hideous. 
We saw tiny old gnarled fruit-trees, covered 
with blo.ssom, and Scotch firs and other forest 
trees, eight inches high, besides diminutive 
ferns and creepers. 

The little Japanese build lower stories and 
shorter doors than we do, and on a daintier 
scale; frequent earthquakes discourage high 
buildings, even for business purposes; their 
black-tiled or straw-thatched roofs with pagoda 
corners, overhang the fronts to form a sort of 
porch. The irregularity with which the buildings 
are set, no two being of the same height, gives 
the streets a ragged and ramshackle appear- 
ance; they are constructed mthout taste, sym- 
metry, or architectural design, and paint is 
seldom used. Buildings are numbered in the 
order of time in which they are constructed; 
thus, number two may be a mile or more away 
from number one, if it is erected at this dis- 
tance from the first structure. 

All the shops, except a few of the better 
class, are open to the streets, and the whole 
stock of goods is on display to the passerby. 
Work of all sorts, sewing, making, mending, em- 
broidering, forging, carpentering, tea-serving. 



36 JAPAK OF TODAY 

dressing children, is carried on in full view of 
the public; the street is the back yard, work- 
shop, and playground. There are few sidewalks, 
shops are set even with the street, and without 
raised foundations; floors raised a few inches 
above and a little back from the street are 
neatly matted and used as counters for display 
of wares. 

Tiny cups of tea are served to the customer, 
while he examines the goods; nobody is in a 
hurry, and tea is always ready in Japan. A 
low bow, the head nearly touching the matted 
floor, is made by the clerk as he rocks his body 
forward from the heels and smiles, as he re- 
plies to any question propounded, several of 
the polite salutations being given in return for 
the slightest purchase. The patience and cour- 
tesy for which the Japanese are justly prover- 
bial seldom desert them; no matter how much 
time is taken, or whether purchases are made 
or not, the bows are as low and smiles as kind- 
ly, trade or no trade. It makes one feel mean 

to turn awav from such treatment without 

«/ 

parting with a few sen at least, so that fre- 
quent looking at artistic productions in the 
shops soon invites the tourist to a state of finan- 
cial bankruptcy. 

Little girls strap the babies to their backs, 
and their dolls on the backs of the babies they 
are carrying. The heavily .wadded kimonas 



CLOTHING 37 

worn in the Autumn days bj^ nurses and children 
are suggestive of animated bed-comforters 
clogging through the streets. A constant 
source of entertainment for the stranger, from 
the moment anchor is cast to the day of de- 
parture, is the dress and undress of these little 
people. The men in dark blue cotton blouses 
with narrow bands of Avhite sewed on in fan- 
tastic ideographs of the native language are 
walking signboards for tradesmen. These de- 
signs are put on the back between the shoulders, 
and are worn to advertise the business followed 
by the workmen. Pantaloons are in every state 
of evolution ; some are gored in the back of the 
leg, which makes them fit as tight as the skin ; 
others have them cut otf halfway between the 
hips and knees; others adorn one leg, leaving 
the other bare, an economical arrangement, as 
the legs can take turns in appearing in public, 
thus doubling the time a wardrobe can last. 
Many are bare-legged, especially the riksha 
men, who, with their rows of wheeled chairs, 
wait patiently in their places to be called into 
service. 

The kimona as generally worn is cut alike 
for men, women, and children; it is a long, 
straight, narrow garment, with wide flomng 
sleeves used for pockets ; the collar folded back 
from the neck, and the skirt so lapped in front 
as to prevent showing the absence of undergar- 




In the Rice Paddies 
38 



DEESS 39 

meiit, if carefully adjusted, which is not always 
the case; the feet are either bare, or merely 
protected by straw sandals held on by a strap 
passed from the instep and over between the 
great and second toes. Some wear the taba, a 
black or white digitated gaiter. 

To raise the feet from the ground, a thin 
board set on two strips of wood about two 
inches high, held on the same as the sandals 
is used, and into these the feet are slipped. 
The narrowness of the kimonas, and the ham- 
pering clogs cause the feet to be shuffled in- 
stead of raised ; and for this reason the race is 
pigeon-toed and hobbling. From their habit of 
squatting on knees and heels the lower part of 
the legs are undeveloped; this in great part 
accounting for the short stature of the race. 
The variety of dress, the numerous little shops, 
the riksha men with their large mushroom hats 
bobbing up and down, and overhanging their 
shoulders, the ^^at home" appearance of the 
occupants of the wheeled chairs, make one's 
first arrival in Japan a memory picture not 
soon to be effaced. It is altogether different 
from that of any other country. 

The pulling and pushing of carts by men who 
do the work that is done by horses in America 
awaken our sympathies, until it is noticed how 
easily and systematically everything is done. 
In Yokohama there are over twenty thousand 



40 JAPAN OF TODAY 

men licensed to run jinrikishas, and about as 
many to run carts. If a horse or bullock is used 
to a cart, the man walks in front leading the 
animal by a rope, seldom using lines, and never 
allowing the beast to pull him, no matter if the 
cart is empty, or what the distance is to be 
traveled. Light loads are carried in baskets or 
tubs suspended on a bamboo pole balanced on 
the shoulders. 

At night the narrow streets are lighted by 
paper or glass lanterns hanging out from the 
low fronts of the numerous shops, each marked 
with ideographs; rikshas running hither and 
thither, with paper lanterns fastened to the 
shafts and bobbing like fireflies, make at first a 
weird and uncanny impression. Riding in the 
evening through the large cities soon becomes 
one of the most enjoyable sources of entertain- 
ment for the stranger. In Tokyo electricity is 
largely used for street lighting. Small dealers 
in every conceivable article of merchandise sit 
on the outer edge of the sidewalks or in rows 
on the street, each having a tiny coal-oil lamp 
with which to illuminate his stock. With 
night-fall come thousands of these dealers, who 
range themselves in their accustomed places, 
waiting for trade until late. 

Everybody is good natured ; there is no bois- 
terousness, drunkenness, unseemly crowding, 
or discourtesy. The throngs on the streets in 




In a JinrikishAj Nagoya, Japan 
41 



42 JAPAK OF TODAY 

a Japanese city, night or day, are the quietest 
and best behaved to be found the world over. 
If street scenes are picturesque under a warm 
sunlight on a clear day, they are still more so 
on a rainy day, the thousands of yellow, oil- 
paper-many-rattaned umbrellas bobbing in and 
out among the black hoods of the jinrikishas 
that are pulled up to cover the occupants ; the 
strips of floor matting hanging from the shoul- 
ders of the poorer people, for want of some- 
thing better, the straw coats worn by many, 
give a distinctive, bedraggled appearance to a 
rainy day, and emphasize the apparent poverty 
of the masses. The streets are a sea of mud 
and slush, through which the throngs splash, 
clog, and shuffle, there being nothing nastier 
than the streets of a Japanese city on a rainy 
day. 

In Tokyo interest centers in the fine old mon- 
astery grounds of Sheba, that are now a public 
park. Here are the mortuary tombs of the Sho- 
guns under the shadows of the century old 
pines and towering cryptomeria. Rows of stone 
votive lanterns line the avenues inside the yard, 
there being many hundreds of them, moss- 
grown and time-eaten. The temple gates and 
edifices are marvels of wood carving and lac- 
quer, and have been splendid in color and gild- 
ing, but now are dust-covered and neglected. 
Priests with shaven heads sit within, crooning 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS 43 

prayers, serving tea, or playing a mournful 
minor tune on a small flute. Worshipers come, 
clap their hands three times, bow, drop a few 
sen on the matted floor, and in this way satisfy 
the worshipful spirit that is in every breast. 

We climb flights of moss-grown, granite 
steps, into a park deep with shadow and gloom 
to visit the tomb of a son of the Shogun, sur- 
rounded with numerous stone lanterns that sit 
in rows in all these temple grounds. We jump 
into our ^^rikshas" and coolies speed away 
two miles through narrow, crooked streets, into 
a broad avenue that leads into Yueno Park, 
with its wide avenues, giant trees, half -hidden 
temples, rows of lanterns, its moss-grown, neg- 
lected tombs, its lotus pond, and annual chrys- 
anthemum display. Here are life-sized figures 
of men and women, whole groups of actors in a 
play, dressed in blooming chrysanthemums. 

Chrysanthemums adorn every shop, house, 
table ; and people carry them in great bunches 
through the fete season, even confections being 
made to represent the flower. The cherry- 
blooming season is the greatest floral fete cel- 
ebrated by Japanese; trees are kept for their 
blossoms alone, the fruit not being edible ; trees 
from one to three hundred years old are shown 
in some gardens, and are objects of reverence, 
and almost worship. The wisteria is another 
favorite flower, and is reproduced in the fine 



44 JAPAN OF TODAY. 

embroideries on kimonas, wall pieces, screens 
and fans. (See picture '^In a Jinrikisha", 
page 41.) 

The American should leave home so as to ar- 
rive early in September. This will allow two 
months in which to travel over the country at 
a time to avoid the extreme heat, and get away 
before the damp, cold season sets in. Sufficient 
English is spoken along the usual routes of 
travel to enable tourists to get along without 
great annoyance. Uniformed porters wait upon 
the traveling public, at the depots, under a good 
system, and there are fair hotels in the leading 
cities, kept by Americans or Europeans. Names 
of all stations are given in both Japanese and 
English, thus greatly aiding the foreign trav- 
eler unacquainted with the Japanese language. 
Newsboys sell papers, confections, and boxes 
of rice at the depots, and all first-class cars 
have a tea-kettle, tea-pot, and cups furnished 
with drawings of tea all placed on a low table in 
the center of the car and furnished free for the 
comfort of the guest in lieu of water, as in our 
country. Hot water is sold at stations. 

Money is on the decimal system, making it 
easy to exchange from American into Japanese. 
A yen is their dollar, and is equivalent to fifty 
cents in U. S. money. One hundred sen make 
one yen, and ten rin make one sen. Thus one 
of the chief annoyances of foreign travel is re- 



FARMING 45 

duced to a minimum when traveling in Japan. 

The populace swarms at country stations to 
see the trains pass by; at one I took a snap- 
shot of the crowd, among which there were 
twenty-nine women and girls with babies 
strapped to their backs. Eailway employees are 
uniformly courteous, and make the way of the 
tourist as pleasant as possible. English is rap- 
idly becoming the commercial language of Ja- 
pan, and each year it becomes easier for the 
American to travel within her borders. The 
total expense of travel is about the same as 
first class in America. The same clothing worn 
in Autumn days at home is suitable for Sep- 
tember, October, and early November in Japan. 
Fifty years ago there was not a mile of railway 
nor a smokestack in all Japan; now her iron 
bands the land, and smoke belches forth from 
her forest stacks in everv citv, Osaka alone 
having over three hundred great factories. 

The small, level valleys, hemmed in by moun- 
tain ranges jutting to the sea are most care- 
fully cultivated. The fields are cut into small, 
irregular beds, from one to three rods in ex- 
tent, and divided by low, irrigating dykes, the 
tops of which are used for paths between 
patches ; there are no fences, and a dumb brute 
is seldom seen. Rice paddies are mixed up with 
beds of vegetables, buckwheat, tea, and mul- 
berry groves, every foot of ground being util- 



46 JAPAN OF TODAY 

ized. The carefully cultivated valleys of Japan 
are among the most beautiful agricultural 
scenes of the world. From early morn until late 
at night the heads of men and women can be 
seen bobbing up and down in the fields, as they 
wade in the rice paddies, for no one seems to 
be idle and lazy in Japan. Mothers strap their 
babies to their backs while they wash, cook, or 
work in the fields, and seem unconscious of their 
additional burden. Occasionally a horse or bul- 
lock is used to break the ground, but usually 
this is done by a long mattock, after which 
the ground is pulverized by a square wooden 
frame set with iron teeth in the bottom cleat 
and swung back and forth by a man to break 
the heavy clogs. Farming implements are of 
the most primitive kind. 

There is a succession of crops, four a year 
being raised, rice being the staple, but in the 
southern part sugar cane, tea, inferior cotton, 
bananas, oranges, persimmons, dispute its su- 
premacy. The gardens occupy terrace above 
terrace on the mountain-sides, and make a pret- 
ty agricultural picture, especially when the 
women tea-pickers, with white kerchiefs tied 
over their heads, with babies in bright col- 
oired kimonas tied on their backs, are at work 
iiji these deep green fields. The people live in 
communities; the houses are made of bamboo 
thatched with straw or leaves, and are set down 



MUSICAL, MEMOEIES 47 

closely together without any idea of order, the 
back door of one against the front door of the 
other. The ridge poles of these shacks are 
often decorated with mde beds of blooming iris. 

Land is owned in small tracts, largely by 
those who till it. It is sold in tracts six feet 
square, instead of acres as with us. No alien 
can hold land in Japan, except for consular 
pur])oses. Farm hands get about fifty dollars 
per year for services that extend from sunup 
to sundown, the people being proverbially early 
risers. The sweet, musical lispings of the little 
children we pass on the roadways call to us 
^^Ohio" which means not ^^good" but ^^ early" 
morning. Swarms of children line the roadways 
in the morning on their way to school, for Japan 
compels all her children to attend school until 
fourteen years of age. 

Musical memories that will ever remain with 
those who have visited Japan are the rever- 
berations of temple bells. All bells are hung 
low from great beams, usually under pagoda 
roofs ; they are rung by means of heavy, swing- 
ing, round logs or beams suspended from the 
roofs by chains, and moved like battering-rams. 
One stroke of the bell sends forth a peal of 
musical thunder, deep, rich, sweet, that rolls 
away and away to the wooded hills, that send 
back the waves in echoes again and again, each 
reverberation growing sweeter and sweeter un- 



48 JAPAN OF TODAY 

til it dies away, the single stroke continuing to 
sound for at least twelve minutes. 

At Kyoto we were wakened every morning at 
sunrise by the praj^erful cadences of the mighty 
bell suspended in the grounds of the great Jodo 
temple in Chion-in, just at the entrance of the 
park of the Yaama hotel, from the windows of 
which we could see the monster musician of the 
morning air as it called the vast population to 
remember their gods. This bell was cast in 
1633. It weighs seventy-four tons, and requires 
twenty or thirty men to ring it with its full 
power. The bell of the Diabutzu temple in Kyoto 
is next in size, and weighs sixty-three tons, and 
is the one oftenest heard. In this temple is 
another bronze Buddha, larger than the one at 
Kamakura. 

The most revered bell of all Japan is in the 
great temple park at Nara, near the temple 
Todaiji. It weighs thirty-seven tons, and was 
cast in 733. Visitors may sound it once by the 
payment of one cent. Another huge bronze 
Buddha sits in this temple. There are five hun- 
dred acres in this ancient park at Nara, shaded 
with stately cryptomeria, that keep watch over 
numerous temples that are rich in carvings, lac- 
quer work, and votive lanterns. Hundreds of 
sacred deer roam in this park, and follow visi- 
tors for the little cakes that are sold for the 
purpose of feeding them. 



THE ISLAND OF INOSHIMA 

We drove quickly through the town, past the 
station, along the Tokaido, or imperial road, 
running from one end of the Island to the other. 
The houses are one story high, and their walls 
are made of the screens I have already de- 
scribed. These screens were all thrown back, 
to admit the morning air w^hich was cold. Con- 
sequently we could see all that was going on 
within, in the sitting-room in front, and even in 
the bedrooms and kitchen. At the back of the 
house there was invariably a little garden to be 
seen, with a miniature rockery, a tree, and a 
lake ; possibly also a bridge and a temple. Even 
in the gardens of the poorest houses an attempt 
is made to have a lake or bridge. 

Much of the house-work is done in the open 
air ; so a very good idea is obtained of how the 
Coolies do their work, and dress themselves and 
their children. 

The hair dressing of the women and girls is 
very elaborate and takes much time to perfect 
it. That is the reason they are so careful to keep 
the hair looking nicely, by sleeping on the 
wooden pillows, and in these modern days they 
use a rubber cushion and lean their faces 

49 



50 JAPAN OF TODAY 

against it, as they sleep. Both men and women 
sleep this way on the trains. 

After stopping twice on the road, to drink 
the inevitable tea, we changed from our car- 
riage to jinrikishas, each drawn and pushed by 
four strong men, bowling along at a merry pace. 
The sun was very warm in the sheltered valleys, 
and the abundance of evergreens of all kinds 
quite deluded one into the belief that it was 
summer time, especially as camellias grew like 
forest trees, covered with red and white bloom, 
amidst a dense tangle of bamboos and half- 
hardy palms. There were many strange things 
upside down to be seen on either hand — horses 
and cows with bells on their tails instead of on 
their necks, the quadrupeds well clothed, their 
masters without a scrap of covering — tailors 
sewing from them instead of toward them, a 
carpenter reversing the action of his saw and 
plane. It looked just as if they had originally 
learned the various processes in ^'Alice's Look- 
ing-glass World" in some former stage of their 
existence. 

In less than an hour we reached the narrow 
strip of land which at low water connects the 
island or peninsula of Inoshima with the main- 
land. The isthmus was covered with natives 
gathering shells and seaweed, casting their nets, 
and pushing off or dragging up their boats; 



INOSHIMA 



51 



whilst an island rose fresh and green from the 
sea, with a background of snowy mountains, 
stretching across the bay above which Fujiyama 
towered grandly. This name signifies ' ' not two, 
but one mountain,'' the Japanese thinking it 
impossible that there can be another like it in 
the world. The lovely little island is called 
Inoshima. It is conical in shape covered with 
evergreens and Buddhist temples; also a few 
small fishipg villages are scattered on its shores. 
We walked right across it in about an hour ; so 
you may imagine it is not very large. 




n>^ 



Inosliizzxa by a Japanese Artist. 



The sea teems with curiously shaped fish and 
beautiful shells. The staple food of the inhabi- 
tants seems to be those lovely ^^ Venus 's ears'' 



52 JAPAN OF TODAY 

as they are called — a flattish univalve, about as 
big as your hand, with a row of holes along the 
edge, and a lining of brilliant black mother-of- 
pearl. These were lying about in heaps mixed 
with white mother-of-pearl shells, as big as your 
two fists, and shaped like a snail-shell. 

Our jinrikisha men deposited us at the bottom 
of the main street of the principal village, to 
enter which we passed through a simple square 
arch of a temple. The street was steep and 
dirty, and consisted principally of shell-fish and 
seaweed shops. 

An old priest took us in hand, and, providing 
us with stout sticks, marched us up to the top 
of the hill to see various temples, and splendid 
views. The camellias and evergreens on the 
hillside made a lovely framework for eacli little 
picture, as we turned and twisted along the nar- 
row path. I know not how many steps on the 
other side of the island had to be descended 
before the sea-beach was reached. Here is a 
cavern stretching 500 feet straight below high- 
water mark, with a shrine to Benton Sama, the 
Lucina of Japan. Having been provided with 
candles, we proceeded a few hundred feet 
through another cave, running at right angles 
to the first. 

As it would have been a long steep walk back, 
and I was very tired, we called to one of the 



THE GEEAT BUDDHA 53 

numerous fishing boats nearby the shore, and 
were quickly conveyed round to our original 
starting place. Before we said goodbye, one of 
the old priests implored us to be allowed to 
dive into the water for a half-a-dollar. His 
request was complied with, and he caught the 
coin most successfully. 

We lunched at a tea-house, our meal consist- 
ing of fish of all kinds, deliciously cooked, and 
served, fresh from the fire. 



The Great Buddha 

Everybody takes a day out from Yokohama to 
pay a visit to Kamakura, a mean hamlet of little 
thatched homes with grass or iris with purple 
flowers grooving on the roofs. This is all that 
remains of the ancient seat of Yaritomo's cap- 
ital city of over one million souls. Frogs croak 
and fishermen lounge where prayers were wont 
to be uttered in numerous and stately temples 
before the conflagration of the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. Here sits the colossal 
bronze image of the great Buddha on a bronze 
lotus-leaf in the grounds of an ancient fane. It 
was cast in 1252 A. D., to carry out the pious 
desire of fulfilling the dying injunction of a 
Japanese woman. 



54 JAPAN OF TODAY 

It was once under cover of a monastery, 
which has been swept away by earthquake and 
tidal wave. Notwithstanding the ravages of 
time and the fury of the elements, it is in a state 
of excellent preservation. No matter how many 
pictures one has seen of this, he is entranced 
with its mystic charm when in its presence. 

Its repose, its dignity, its child-like gentle- 
ness, typify all that is tender and beautiful in 
the soul of Japan that has produced it. Its great 
bronze eyes seem to follow us all about, and if 
danger should confront us when in its presence, 
we would involuntarily rush into its broad arms 
for protection. It is about fifty feet in height; 
ninety-eight feet in circumference; the length 
of the face is eight and a half feet, of the eye 
four feet, of the ear six and one-half feet, and 
of the nose three feet, and eight inches. The 
breadth of the mouth is three feet, two and one- 
half inches ; the length from knee to knee thirty- 
six feet, and the circumference of the thumb 
three feet. 

You can enter into the statue through a small 
orifice in one side of the bronze lotus-blossom 
seat. Inside is a little shrine of Kwannon, the 
goddess of pity and mercy, the goddess with a 
thousand hands and a thousand faces. One can 
ascend by a ladder into the shoulders of the 
image, and from small windows get a glimpse 



A SHINTO TEMPLE 55 

of meadow, grove, and sea surrounding it. We 
pass through the temple gate that always 
guards the entrance to temple grounds, and 
ascend a flight of broad stone steps, and stop 
before the open door of a Shinto temple; the 
only furnishings are a large square box for re- 
ceiving contributions of rice or money, a chain 
or cord suspended from a cluster of small bells, 
and a round mirror that is supposed to reflect 
the soul. Worshippers drop their contributions 
for the benefit of the clean-shaven, yellow-robed 
Buddhist or white-robed Shinto priests. This 
temple site is in a grove of ancient cedars and 
pines mixed with the graceful bamboo and trees 
of tropical verdure and beauty. 



In Nikko 

Nikko is one of the most interesting places in 
Japan and we made several visits here. It is 
famous for its temples, its magnificent groves of 
cryptomeria, and its avenue of twenty-five miles, 
lined on either side with these immense trees, 
leading into the grounds and surrounding the 
most famous temples in all Japan. Temple- 
builders selected the most romantic spots on 




56 



NIKKO 57 

mountains or hillsides for their places of wor- 
ship, where they now sit under the dense shade 

of century-old trees. 

t/ 

We ascend a flight of wide, moss-grown stone 
steps, and stop inside the Shinto gateway to 
buy a few beans to feed the sacred pony that is 
in a comfortable stall at the entrance. He gulps 
them down like any other pony, but we have 
parted with a few rin, so we pass on, only to be 
halted to mtness the sacred priestesses dance 
for the amusement of the spirit of leyasu, whose 
body lies in these shady temple grounds. 

The priestess drapes herself in red or white 
with her hair hanging down her back. Her 
dance consists in stepping back and forth on the 
raised platform and in raising the toes of her 
bare feet in time with the fan that she holds in 
one hand and the bunch of tinkling bells in the 
other. 

There is no profanity in the Japanese lan- 
guage, and there is no Sunday or day of rest in 
their religion. 

It was a charming ride in a sedan chair to 
Chuzanzi, a lake surrounded by high mountains. 
It was far more delightful for me than for the 
six coolies that tugged and perspired with their 
load as they picked their way over the steep 
and rugged pathway. About twenty years ago, 
an earthquake had moved the end of a great 



58 



JAPAN OF TODAY 



mountain, one mile across and three thousand 
feet high, down the valley, through the deep 
gorge of a wild mountain stream, the course of 
which w^as changed by the flood that carried 
everything before it as it tore its way past 
Nikko, twelve miles distant. Here it swept 
away the famous Red Lacquer Bridge, so sacred 
that none but the Mikado or royal prince was 
permitted to cross it. 




The Red Lacquer Bridge 

This bridge has been rebuilt. 



I^IKKO 59 

The earthquake did other serious damage, and 
was so powerful in its might of destruction that 
the people who heard the thundering noise 
thought the world had come to an end. Our way 
skirted the precipice and ya\\Tiing chasm made 
by this fearful throe of nature. The coolies 
carried us along the broken way now on a nar- 
row path Avith overhanging rocks that looked as 
if the weight of a bird might send them crashing 
down upon us, now crossing the raging stream 
on stepping-stones or huge boulders or on tem- 
porary bamboo bridges that threatened to move 
down stream with us while on them. If going 
up was hazardous, coming down was more so. 
Our coolies trotted, ran and chattered all along 
the way. 

Nearing Nikko they stopped to allow us to 
count the row of stone Buddhas that stood on 
the opposite side of the river bank, so alike and 
close together that no tw^o people can count 
them and make the same number; first I made 
three hundred, then four or more hundred, al- 
though many had been swept down the stream 
at the time of the earthquake. This is an inter- 
esting puzzle in gods. Immense sums of money 
have been spent in Japan in carving stone 
votive lanterns and Buddhas, and in erecting 
rich temples in lacquer carving and gold and 
silver ornamentation. 



60 



JAPAN OF TODAY 



In all the legends of Japan, and there are 
many, there is much sweetness, reverence, and 
polite tenderness, which speak charmingly for 
tjie ^^bushedo," or soul of Japan. 




History 

In the Foreword, reference is made to recent 
legislation affecting the rights of the Japanese 
to admission to the United States and to the 
ownership of land. It is interesting to note that 
foreigners are not allowed to own land in Japan 
except for consular residences. In the Intro- 
duction are quotations from different narratives 
and at a time when non-intercourse prevailed in 
Japan, and when only the Dutch were allowed 
the privilege of a yearly voyage to Japan. 

The relations between the United States and 
Japan are unusual in the fact that the establish- 
ing of a friendly feeling between the two nations 
resulted in the opening up of Japan to inter- 
course with other nations. 

The settlement of the States of California 
and Oregon on the Pacific Coast emphasized the 
importance of commercial intercourse with 
Japan, because of the intimate relations which 
must soon exist between the Coast and the East 
Indies. 



61 




62 



COMMODORE PERRY 63 

An expedition was fitted ont by the United 
States, which sailed in November, 1852, carrying 
a letter from the President to the Emperor of 
Japan, asking for a treaty of friendship and 
commerce between the two nations. For this 
expedition seven ships-of-war were employed 
under command of Commodore M. C. Perry, a 
brother of the victor on Lake Erie. The letter 
which he carried was drafted by Daniel Web- 
ster before his death, but countersigned by 
Edward Everett, his successor in office. 

Perry carried many useful implements and 
inventions as presents, to the Japanese govern- 
ment, including a small railway and equipments, 
telegraph, etc. He was to approach the govern- 
ment in the most friendlv manner; to use no 
violence unless attacked; but if attacked, to let 
the Japanese feel the full weight of his power. 
Perry delivered his letter and waited for some 
months without being permitted to go ashore. 
In the interval, he visited and surveyed the Loo 
Choo Islands. He finally effected a landing and 
commenced negotiations and a treaty was made 
that ports should be thrown open to American 
colonists to a limited extent in different Japan- 
ese islands; that steamers should be furnished 
with supplies of coal, and that American sailors 
shipwrecked should receive hospitable treat- 
ment. 



64 JAPAN OF TODAY 

Subsequently, a peculiar construction of the 
treaty on the part of the Japanese authorities 
relating to the permanent residence of Ameri- 
cans there threatened a disturbance of the 
agreeable relations which had been established. 
This matter was adjusted, and in 1860 the first 
embassy from Japan visited the United States 
with an imposing array of Japanese officials. 

There was a great opposition in the empire 
to this intercourse with ^^the barbarians^' and 
civil war ensued. An immediate change marked 
public opinion in Japan, and from that time the 
intimate relations, social and commercial, be- 
tween the United States and Japan have con- 
stantly increased. 

Early in 1872 the government of Japan sent 
another embassy to the United States, charged 
to inquire about the renewal of former treaties. 
This embassy consisted of twenty-one persons, 
comprising the heads of several departments of 
the Japanese government and their secretaries. 
Among them was an imperial prince — Mori — 
who came to represent Japan at Washington as 
charge d'affaires and also twelve students. This 
mission arrived in Washington early in March 
and Mori had the honor of being the first minis- 
ter ever sent by the Japanese government to 
reside in a foreign country. 



No. 95. William Cullen Bryant. To a 

Waterfowl, The Fringed Gentian. 11 
pagres, with portrait, notes, and Intro- 
duction. 

No. 96. John Greenleaf Whittier. The 
Corn Song, The Huskers. 11 pages, 
with portrait, an illustration, notes, and 
introduction. 

No. 97. Henry Wadsworth liongrfellow. 
The Reaper and the Flowers. The 
Builders. 11 pages, with portrait, notes, 
an illustration, and introduction. 

No. 98. James Russell liOweU. The First 
Snowfall, A Day In June. 11 pages, 
with portrait, an illustration, and intro- 
duction. 

No. 40. The Great Stone Face. Haw- 
thorne. 48 pages. With illustrative 
questions by Skinner. 

No. 41. The Snow Image. Hawthorne. 
48 pages. 

No. 42. The King of the Golden River. 
Ruskin. 47 pages. 

No. 44. The Great Carbuncle. Haw- 
thorne. 38 pages. With a study by 
Miss Havana. 

Edward Everett Hale. Classic No. 147. 
The Man Without a Country. With 
portrait, notes, and questions, by O. E. 
S. Fielden. 

SEVENTH GRADE 

No. 38. The Deserted Yillagfe. Goldsmith. 
24 pages. With a study by Misa 
Kavana. 

No. 91. A Deserted ViUagre, The Trav- 
eler. By Goldsmith. Illustrated. 68 
pages. 

No. 2. Selections from Washington, Lin- 
coin, Bryant, McKinley. Including the 
Declaration of Independence. A book 
of patriotic selections. Nightingale. 78 
pages. Illustrated. 

No. 24. Lays of Ancient Rome. By 
Macaulay. 106 pages. 21 illustrations. 

No. 30. Seven Selections from the Sketch 
Book. Illustrated, and with biography, 
notes, etc. 140 pages. Enameled covers. 

No. 144. Evangeline. By Longfellow. 
64 pages. Portrait, introduction, bio- 
graphical sketch of Longfellow, with 
chronological list of leading poems, 
historical introduction upon Acadia. 
The poem is followed by several pages 
of questions and suggestions for the 
study of the poem, with subjects for 
composition work. 

No. 39. Enoch Arden. Tennyson. 42 
pages. With a study by Miss Kavana. 

No. 92. Enoch Arden and Other Poems. 
By Alfred Tennyson. 

No. 86. Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 
By Coleridge, and 

Elegy in a Country Church Yard. 
Gray. 

EIGHTH GRADE 

No. 27. Selections from Lincoln, Haw- 
thorne, Webster, Goldsmith, and Ten- 
nyson. 136 pages. Enameled covers. 
With a series of studies by Mi^ Kav- 
ana. 



No. 29. The Merchant of Venice. Enam- 
eled covers. Cloth back. With intro- 
duction, suggestive outline, and ques- 
tions. 

No. 47. Bunker Hill Oration. Webster. 
Photographs numbered. With a series 
of questions. 

No. 69. The Cotter's Saturday Night. 

Text only. 

No. 85. Julius Caesar. By Shakespeare. 
With notes and suggestions for teach- 
ing. 98 pages. 

No. 90. A Christmas Carol. By Charles 

Dickens. 98 pages. 
No. 93. Selections from Edgar Allan 

Poe. The Gold Bug, The Raven. The 

Bells, and Selected Poems. 112 pages, 

3 illustrations and portrait. 

No. 100. Selections from Adelaide A. 
Procter. Consisting of A Lost Chord, 
Incompleteness, The Angel's Story, The 
Names of Our Lady. With portrait, 
biography, a series of studies, and 
suggestive questions. 

No. 105. Selections from Cardinal New- 
man. Containing Lead, Kindly Light; 
Callista, Loss and Gain, a portion of 
Dream of Gerontius, with Selected 
Poema. Also portrait, biography, a 
series of studies, and suggested ques- 
tions. 

No. 127. Studies of American Authors. 
Cloth back. 72 pages. Illustrations. 
The brief biographical sketches, the 
copious and well-chosen selections, the 
tasteful and thoughtful critical com- 
ments contribute to the usefulness of 
the volume and give it a charm for 
the pupil. 

No. 84. Vision of Sir Laonfal and Other 
Poems. By James Russell Lowell. 

No. 106. Lady of the Lake. Scott. Full 
cloth bound, 256 pages, with portrait, 
introduction, and notes. 

No. 107. Sohrab and Rustum. Matthew 
Arnold. 64 pages, boards, with por- 
trait, introduction, map, and exhaust- 
ive notes and questions. Edited by 
Carrie E. T. Dracass. 

FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

NINTH GRADE 

Julius Caesar — Twentieth Century Edi- 
tion. Edited by C. L. Hooper, of Teach- 
ers College, Chicago. 144 pages. Cloth. 
Illustrated, with notes and questions. 

Lessons in Literature. New and abridged 
edition. Printed from new plates. 
Cloth. Gilt stamp. 38 illustrations. 
306 pages. The whole field to be cov- 
ered is divided into different periods. 
In each the most prominent writer is 
given, with more or less copious ex- 
tracts from their works. The contem- 
porary writers, home and foreign, are 
then noted in a smaller compass, glv- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



ing for each the dates of birth and 
death» and a list of JtJieir best and 
most noted worksi Introduction price. 

Merchant of Venice— XXth Century Edi- 
tion. Edited by C. TU Hooper, of 
Teachers CoUegre, Chicago. 140 pages. 
Cloth. Beautifully illustrated, with 
copious notes and questions. 

No. 10. Four Great Classics. Contain- 
ing Burke's Speech on Conciliation, 
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, The Vi- 
sion of Sir Launfal and The Holy 
Grail. Edited by Rushton. 

No. 14. The Vision of Sir Lannfal, The 
Holy Grail. Enameled covers. 

No. 59. Wordsworth, Browninff, Keats. 
Selections. With portraits. 

TENTH GRADE 

Macbeth. Edited by C. li. Hooper. 155 

pages. 
As Vou liike It. 127 pages. Twentieth 

Century Edition. Edited by C. L. 

Hooper, Chicago. Illustrated. With 

copious notes and questions. 
No 48. Sir Rogrer De Coverley Papers. 

Dracass. Illustrated. With portrait. 

Full cloth bound. 
No. 55. Essays of Elia. (Five). Lamb. 

Cloth back. Enameled covers. 57 

pages. 
No. 24. L.ays of Ancient Rome. 106 

pages. 21 Illustrations. Cloth back. 

With portrait, biography, and intro- 
ductory material on each of the poems. 



020 120 972 9 



No. 49. 1 

Edited 1 
lections 
worth, ; 

No. 5. Selections from Boms' Poems 
and Sonsrs. Enameled covers. 90 pages. 

No. 6. Carlyle's Essay on Boms. Edited 
by Walter Slocum. Cloth back. Enam- 
eled covers. With an analysis. 

No. 8. Carlyle's Essay on Boms and 
Selections from Bums' Poems and 

Songs. Full cloth bound. 
No. 56. Imaginary Conversations. (Five), 

Landor. Cloth back. Enameled covers. 
78 pages, 

TWELFTH GRADE 

Hamlet. 208 pages. Full cloth. With a 

series of notes and questions by C. L. 

Hooper. 
No. 18. Milton's Minor Poems. Doolittle. 

75 pages. Enameled covers. Cloth 

back. 
No. 19. Milton's Poems. Full cloth 

bound. Revised. 
No. 20. Macaulay's Essay on Milton, 

Enameled covers. Cloth back. 
No. 22. Macaulay^s Essay on Addison. 

Enameled covers. Cloth back. 
No. 35. Macaulay's Essay on Milton and 

Milton's Poems. Fielden. Same as 18 

and 20. Full cloth bound. 



Other numbers in Preparation. The publishers will quote prices on 
application. Full descriptive catalogue free. 

All paragraphs are numbered In Classics Nos. 2, 6, 11, 20, 26, 27, 40, 41, 
42, 44, 46. 

THE GREAT LAKES SERIES 

The Mohawk Valley and Lake Ontario. Special attention Is given to Colonial 
and Revolutionary history, and the development of routes and intercourse and 
transportation. 

Lake Erie and the Story of Commodore Perry. This book of 104 pages reports 
a trip from Buffalo to Detroit, in which two children with their uncle and 
aunt visit Black Rock, where some of the ships of Perry's fleet were fitted 
out; the harbor at Erie, where the "Lawrence" and the "Niagara" were 
built; Put-in-Bay, and the scene of the Battle a hundred years ago. 

Lake Huron and the Country of the Algronquins. Describes the most dramatic 
incidents of the Conspiracy of Pontiac; of the heroism and devotion of the 
early French missionaries; and of some of the most fsLscinating of the Indian 
legends. 

Lake Michigran and the French Explorers. Describes the scenes made historic 
by the French in the days when English colonists along the Atlantic had 
hardly dared to settle out of sight of the sea. 



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